Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 2 Nov 1999

Vol. 509 No. 6

Written Answers. - Employment Action Plan.

Richard Bruton

Ceist:

120 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the new initiatives, if any, she plans to introduce as mainstream policy proposals to build on the various pilot initiatives undertaken as part of the NOW, Horizon and Youthstart programmes; the areas in which further pilot initiatives will be undertaken; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21741/99]

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Ms Harney)

EMPLOYMENT is an EU human resources initiative which operates for the period 94-99. The initiative operates under four strands – NOW, Integra, Youthstart and Horizon, each strand catering for a different target group. EMPLOYMENT seeks to combat exclusion, disadvantage and inequality in the labour market by funding innovative pilot projects which respond to the personal and labour market circumstances of each of the four target groups. The initiative is implemented in two phases, phase one projects ran from 1996 to 1997 and phase two projects started in 1998 and will continue until end of 1999 to early 2000.

My Department established a mainstreaming forum in 1997 to identify and extract the important lessons from the EMPLOYMENT pilot projects and to transfer these lessons to the mainstream of policy and practise. The forum consists of representatives from eight Departments and four agencies as well as the five administrative structures of the EMPLOYMENT initiative.

Through participation in the forum, policymakers have gained access to and familiarity with the work undertaken in the pilot projects with a view to the application of this learning in their own spheres. The work of the mainstreaming forum is ongoing and will continue into 2000 in order to look at the learning from the EMPLOYMENT initiative and in particular the currently funded phase two projects.

The best practices and learning from the four strands of the EMPLOYMENT initiative have also fed into Ireland's national employment action plan. The plan gives examples of specific projects and positions them in their policy context. The new human resource operational programme, which will form part of the National Development Plan 2000-2006, is based around the national employment action plan and thus will also reflect the learning from EMPLOYMENT.

Examples of where particular successes in mainstreaming were achieved are as follows: project work under Youthstart on integrated local approaches to counter early school leaving assisted the definition of the Department of Education and Science's current initiative for the prevention of early school leaving, a Horizon project led to the establishment of a university accredited course in training and education relating to people in supported employment while another developed and piloted peer counselling training for the disabled which has been endorsed by many regional health authorities.

Further pilot projects will be funded under the new human resources initiative EQUAL which will run from 2000 to 2006. This initiative aims to promote new means of combating all forms of discrimination and inequalities in connection with the labour market by way of innovative projects involving local consortia and transnational partners. EQUAL will address selected themes and is again centred around the four pillars of the employment action plans of the member states encompassing employability, entrepreneurship, adaptability and equal opportunities between women and men.